Adcock joins Harpo’s honor club as a ‘Pioneer’

For local musician Charles “C. C.” Adcock, it came around last week when the Slim Harpo Music Awards were announced.

Adcock, Van Morrison (yes, that one) and retired U.S. Marine Corps Lt. Col. David Couvillon have been cited, respectively, with Pioneer, Legend and Ambassador honors in the name of the late Baton Rouge swamp bluesman, whose given name is James Moore.

There won’t be a ceremony, but Adcock will get his award in an acoustic studio show with Dash Rip Rock’s Bill Davis at Pal Productions Saturday.

And, no, Van the Man probably won’t make it. However, he may be going to a crawfish boil on the levee in Henderson. Or not.

Adcock, he of the bands Lil’ Band o’ Gold and Lafayette Marquis, has included Harpo’s magic in his own stuff – “I’ve lifted so much from those records” he wrote in an email response that I lifted regarding the Harpo honor.

Because Adcock was in New Orleans producing the new James McMurtry record and was a busy guy, I sent him some questions the new fashioned way and he responded likewise.

“I’m very honored. Slim Harpo is my main guy as far as influences go. I’ve lifted so much from those records. And to join all of the other great musicians who have been recognized with this award through the years,” Adcock wrote. “So many of whom actually played with Slim – and who I’ve also gotten to know and work with. “Cats like Jockey (Etienne) and Warren (Storm) from Lil’ Band O’ Gold, who laid down those hypnotic beats on all of Slim’s iconic records... It’s really quite special”

Not that Adcock has an opinion one way or another, but he also wrote about Harpo:

“For me, Slim Harpo and those records are the beginning and the end. To date, I’ve never heard any other that trump them. Slim Harpo (and Jimmy Reed) are the real kings of rock n’ roll.”

Hear that, Elvis? Anyway, Harpo recorded at J.D. Miller’s studio in Crowley and, yes, Adcock has a story about it that Miller told him back in the day.

“…they were insanely adventurous with the use of echo and with any little sound or phrase or rhythm that they thought might help the record to catch on. I remember J.D. explaining to me once, that when Slim first came in, he couldn’t get a good vocal take on ‘I’m A King Bee.’ So out of frustration and as a gimmick, they tried putting a clothespin on his nose so that he’d sound more like a bee. BAM! An iconic track and vocal style is born. Try holding your nose and saying “let’s buzz awhile.” It’s the Slim Harpo sound... It’s fantastic.”

Actually, Harpo’s music is even more than that for Adcock.

“For my tastes, musically and sonically, Slim Harpo records are perfection. I’m constantly using those records to reference when I’m in the recording studio... Checking my sounds against them and so I’ll remember to try and invent something new and a little freaky-deaky on each and every track... And to keep it simple and cool... and deeply SWAMPY.”

Since Adcock was involved with HBO’s “True Blood” regarding the show’s soundtrack, it’s probably no surprise that Harpo’s “Strange Love” made its way into the show (as did Lafayette Marquis’ “Bleed 2 Feed.”)

“Well, everyone who knows anything has heard some Slim Harpo. And the Music Super on the show was already hip to it. But I was steady preaching and pitching all the swamp blues stuff and the lesser known B-sides. “Strange Love” went in the first season and on the soundtrack - back when the show was really good and blowing up. That track was the perfect fit for True Blood... Spooky and sexy, and just a little goofy.”

And while Adcock has borrowed from Harpo, don’t expect a tribute album of his songs – a song list that includes “Raining in My Heart,” “Baby, Scratch My Back,” and “Rainin’ in My Heart” – anytime soon.

“I’m so in love with the original versions, so there’s no way I could wrap my head around changing them,” said Adcock over the phone while I awaited his email. “And changing them would just be futile.”

Tickets for the Adcock/Davis show are $35 and are available by calling 225-383-0968. At a dedication of the Slim Harpo highway marker, which is also June 21, Couvillon will receive his award. Proceeds from the Adcock/Davis show benefit the Music in the Schools outreach program.

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Anyway, here’s the rest of the email interview story with Charles Adcock, sans the info already pulled for the column.

DC: So what does the award mean to you?

CA: “I’m very honored …” And after all that (see above), Adcock continued:

“And Rudy Richard and James Johnson who did all the original stingin’... Guitar Gable, Lonesome Sundown, Gatemouth (Brown), Tony Joe (White), Keef (Keith Richards) and Sonny (Landreth) and all the rest. Man, that’s literally every one of my guitar heroes right there! And to know that some of the Moore family sits on the board that choses the recipients, and that they’re aware of my music and deep love for all things Slim Harpo.

“They were amongst the first to consistently crossover with white audiences. And they did so because, even though they’re considered blues artists, when you hear those records you don’t hear a specific genre. You only hear instantly memorable songs that are impossible not to move to, and that pull on your heart. That’s the key. It doesn’t matter where you’re from or what you’re into, those songs and sounds stick in your brain.

“The beats and melodies and lyrics are beyond infectious. And so many of Slim’s records also had that lonesome, tough edge to them. They transcend “the blues” or any style or era, really. It’s why The Stones, The Kinks, Van Morrison and so many others through the years have been inspired and found success covering and copying them. Slim has certainly had that same profound effect on me.

“Slim Harpo’s music and the way JD (Miller) made those records, is timeless. Those productions were done at the very start of modern studio recording and when R&B and rock ‘n’ roll was young and fresh and just beginning to blow people’s minds. There were no rules or formula. It was all still a wild mystery as to what might make a hit.

Slim and JD Miller and the musicians might not have had a lot to work with gear-wise, back then, but they would simply try anything in the hopes of catching lightning in a bottle. And that spirit is still what makes great records today. There’s is an extraordinary legacy. It’s not a stretch to say that those records contain the DNA for just about everything that has happened since, in popular music. And the lyrics, with something like “Got Love If You Want It,” one can clearly see that Slim had a full understanding and compassion for the human condition.

DC: What’s the Harpo connection for you?

CA: “It really started when I was a teenager, in the ‘80’s, listening to the T-Birds. We’d go to Grant Street Dancehall to dance and hear them play all the time. They covered a ton of Slim Harpo tunes back then, and those were always my favorite. I already knew about Miller’s music shop and recording studio, and had hung around there while visiting school friends that lived out in Crowley. So when I dug back and heard Slim’s amazing originals, and started realizing that they had all been recorded right in my own backyard, and had had such a massive influence on so many big heroes of mine, like the Stones, Van and the Vaughan brothers… That connected a lot of dots and made a huge impression on me.

“And also, because around the time I got hip and came across that whole scene, all the hipsters from Ace Records in London had just come over and gone through the local studio vaults and compiled these immaculate reissue records on Slim - and all the swamp blues and Louisiana rock ‘n’ roll stuff. The records all had wild cover art and came complete with B-sides and out takes and these scholarly British liner notes that really painted the picture of the sessions - and how everything was recorded and exactly who played on what. You could buy them at Miller’s in Crowley, alongside the weekly Top 40 45’s - and all the other regional stuff that had been recorded there. It was a treasure trove of hometown inspiration. I started listening and playing along, and I was hooked for life man.

“In recent times, I feel that in all the effort to embrace and focus on furthering and preserving indigenous styles like Cajun and zydeco, that we sometimes forget that this area is also truly the cradle of rock n roll. Over the years, it’s by far been our largest and most recognized cultural export. So many iconic records were born here, by integrating all the local flavors, country and soul, and turning it into something truly universal. And on those records, it was about matching the production, stylistically to the song and reaching for something bigger. Not just recording to catalog an artist or a specific little genre.

“Slim Harpo’s music and records are the best example of this. They struck a deep nerve and became mainstream all over the world. And they still completely hold up and get the party started.”

Dominick Cross is entertainment writer for the Times of Acadiana and Daily Advertiser. Contact him at dcross@theadvertiser.com.